It’s kind of amazing what happens when a team gets their short chucker shooting guard off their team.
We have Anfrenee Simmons so there is no stopping us. https://www.espn.com/nba/recap/_/gameId/401468330 Anfrenee Simmons, who hit five 3-pointers and scored 23 points for Portland, called Grant's explosive dunk, which left fans gasping, a “nail in the coffin.”
Gee. Thanks for explaining the obvious. But considering we’re 9-3 and all the teams above us have shit records, Dallas is okay, and #10 isn’t very good…. We’re doing really well.
I put Bucks, Celtics, and Hawks above them. They don’t have much playoff experience (they lost the play-in last year) and Mitchell has a lot to prove.
Portland is very good but several ways to improve for sure. Nobody in the media is hailing them contenders or anything of that nature. Brooklyn will be back on the contender list of many before Portland. The Lakers win 5 in a row and they are back in the discussion. None of which means a damn thing.
Another way to think of it is bad teams don't get to play themselves so thats one less easy opponent. Good teams don't have to play themselves so thats one less hard opponent.
It shouldn't be the be all end all as yes it can be skewed, and especially on these small sample sizes. But its still very useful to see how a teams schedule to date or at certain periods compares and to see how difficult the remaining games are.
You guys are a bunch of idiots, we're obviously not that good. I know this because one of the Basketball Savants on here said we'd be like 2-8. Though, to be fair, I haven't had a chance to talk to his soccer star daughter or his wife yet....
Could you imagine if this Blazers 9-3 team was playing in NY or LA? There would be neverending discussions on every national show with "are they for real" "can they contend" "Is Lillard MVP" etc etc. The national media and ESPN have such a ridiculous bias.
